Pizza No. 17 – Dupont Circle

My friend heard about Pizza No. 17 through an app called Scoutmob, which has coupons for local restaurants and shops that you can redeem directly from your phone. Scoutmob is kind of like Groupon, but the difference is that you don’t have to purchase the coupon in advance, you just eat at the restaurant and present the coupon on your phone at the end of your meal. The deal we had was for 50% off the check (max discount $15; 1 coupon per table).

Pizza No. 17 has a tiny indoor seating area and a larger, covered outdoor area. We sat inside because it was cold, but the outdoor area seemed quite charming with its picnic tables and fake tea light candles.

Photo credit goes to the Pizza No. 17 Facebook page

The interior had photos of (who I assumed was) the restaurant’s owner on one wall and a banner illustrating the restaurant’s neighborhood on the other wall. It included caricatures of hairy-legged drag queens running past Pizza No. 17 in high heels, reminding locals of that annual Halloween Drag Race that takes place on 17th Street. Hanging from the ceiling were awesome mason jar chandeliers… I’m still contemplating whether or not making these for my dorm room would be a feasible project…

I couldn’t decide on which personal pizza to order because there were so many options, so I did what the rest of my friends did and ordered the Pizza Sliders ($9.50): 3 mini versions of any of the pizzas on the menu. Let me start by saying that I left the restaurant hungry because the sliders were an appetizer. The waitress warned us that they weren’t big enough to be an entree, but my friends and I didn’t take her advice.

The mini pizzas were a little bigger than the size of a Chips Ahoy cookie. They were pretty underwhelming; neither the Pizza No. 17 nor the Funghi had memorable, distinct flavors. The Pizza di Pesto, however, was quite good. It had a smoky, sweet taste.

Although I left Pizza No. 17 hungry, it was my fault because I ordered an appetizer as an entree. I would come back to sit outside on a summer evening and take advantage of the awesome Scoutmob deal!